1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a paper seasoning apparatus and an inkjet recording apparatus. Particularly, the present invention relates to a paper seasoning apparatus for blowing air onto a side face of a stack of paper, and an inkjet recording apparatus including the paper seasoning apparatus.
2. Related Art
Papers that have been recorded with image by an image recording apparatus, such as inkjet recording apparatus, are configured into paper stacks. Such paper stacks are configured with, for example, separation plates inserted between sheets of paper to separate the paper every specific number of sheets. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 6-239514 discloses an automatic blanking device in which a sensor detects when the number of sheets of paper stacked on a blanking plate has reached a specific number, and the blanking plate is then lowered by a fixed amount.
Sometimes expansion and contraction of paper occurs just after the paper has been recorded with an image by an inkjet recording apparatus. This expansion and contraction of paper are due to the presence of portions within a single sheet of paper, where there is a lot of ink (moisture content) and portions where there is little thereof. Consequently, humidity conditioning (called seasoning) of the paper is preferably performed by supplying air onto the plural sheets of paper (paper stack). However, if this results in the need for an operation to carry the paper stacks from an inkjet recording apparatus to a paper seasoning apparatus then this increases the workload on an operative.